Catching up

Two weeks ago--(October 11)

Hello!

 

This week I punched myself in the face.

 

Really, I did!

 

It happened while I was playing volleyball with my Mandarin district friends.  My team won the point, and I was up to serve so an elder on the other side threw the volleyball over the net for me to catch.  I lifted my hands (placing them just a foot from my face) and watched the ball curve over the net and rocket straight into my waiting hands. 

 

What I didn't anticipate was the actual momentum of the ball and the fact that my hand placement would bring it STRAIGHT INTO MY FACE!  (This is the most amazing and embarrassing part...)   My thumb went straight up my nose (ha!) and my fist punched me right-smack in the middle of my eyes!

 

All of the elders oohed and aahed, with some 'yikes' tossed in there as well, while I staggered backward and tried to clear my vision.  The most embarrassing part was I gave myself a bloody nose so I couldn't even pretend it hadn't happened!  I have a phenomenal bruise inside of my nose now, and a cut the size of a staple on the edge of my nostril where I jabbed myself with my thumb.  (This is so much more embarrassing writing it down!). 

 

Afterward I found Sis. B and dragged her into the bathroom with me.  At first, when she saw all of the blood, she worried but once I told her the story she laughed and laughed and laughed.  My whole district laughs about it now, and when Sis. B randomly chuckles to herself during personal study and I ask "what are you laughing at?" she just smiles, tilts her head to the side and points at the scab on the side of my nose.  Oh goodness, never a dull moment here at the MTC.

 

Besides punching myself, we've officially reached our halfway mark here at the MTC!  Oh my goodness, I can hardly believe it!  The older district left for Korea yesterday and our babies (the new district) will be coming in a week.  I'm going to miss the older district so much, they were some of my best friends here, but I'm so excited to prep for Korea--it seems so much closer now!

 

Last Wednesday, I convinced Sis. B and the two other sisters in my class (the four of us sleep in the same room and they're some of my best friends now) to all wear the same thing and pretend like we hadn't noticed.  We all wore orange-red shirts with black skirts and white flowers in our hair.  We had different cardigans, and hairstyles, but it was definitely noticable.  I just have to say that my companion and Sis. Rovelsky and Evans are some of the best actresses I have ever met!  Most everyone believed it was a coincidence!  We were pretty good at looking surprised and bewildered when people pointed it out.

 

Like I said before, you know you're a missionary at the MTC when everything is suddenly very, very funny.

 

Best day ever.

 

Other than that, life has just been rolling right along here.  Sis. B and I have really been improving our Korean and hardly ever look at our notes in our lessons. I'm feeling more confident in expressing my thoughts and understanding what our investigators say (I'm pretty sure it'll be the exact opposite once I'm actually in Korea, but I'll take what I can get).

 

 Love you all more than the Temple cafeteria breakfasts! (and that's saying something...)

 

Sis. Washburn 

October 18 - Miracles

Hello all!

 

My fingers are still a little numb from standing outside for our latest fire drill, so I´ll blame any misspellings on my floppy fingers.  Also, an Elder switched all of the keys on my keyboard so I´m not certain if all of the characters are coming out and the shift key is hard to press down--you might have to do a bit of personal translation for this email...

 

Anyway, this week has been jam-packed with miracles!

 

Since last Tuesday I´ve developed this cough that WILL NOT GO AWAY!  I didn´t want to go to the medical center because I really don´t have any other symptoms and I was sure I´d get over it soon.  But I didn´t.  And that cough stayed like an unwelcome house guest.

 

It got to the point that I couldn´t sleep at night because I coughed every two minutes or so.  From Tuesday to Sunday, every night, I´d lay in bed for ten minutes, feel sorry for coughing, and then eventually grab my pillow and blanket and head out to the hallway to sit on the couches in front of the vending machines.  I´d stay out there on the couches until about 2am or 3am and then head back to my room to quietly slip into my bed.  If I started coughing again, I´d just go back out to my good ol´buddies, the vending machines, and practice Korean until it was time to get up.  I got an average of three or four hours of sleep every night.

 

Crazy, right? 

 

Now, here´s the miracle.

 

I still functioned!  I went to class, I taught our investigators, I laughed and joked with my district, I did everything I normally did!  I was so sustained by the Spirit it was amazing!  Any other time of my life I would have died.  Being a missionary is the best medicine around.  The Spirit´s a pretty wonderful doctor.

 

On Saturday, I ran into my dear, dear friend, Rachel Robison, at the TRC and it made my whole week!  She speaks Korean and came in as a volunteer.  When I poked my head in to see who we would be teaching and saw her bright, smiling face I couldn´t help but gasp and turn to Sis. B to say,  Holy cow, my Rachel is here!

 

We loved teaching her.

 

Also, last Sunday, a guest came to my district meeting before church and sat in on our lesson. His name is President Hacking. Before the meeting I smiled and introduced myself and he asked if I was related to any Washburns in the area.  I smiled and said I was pretty much related to every Washburn in some way and we eventually found out that my great grandmother, Wasel, is his grandfather´s sister. I found a long lost cousin! 

 

At the MTC-wide fireside that night we found out that President Hacking was the speaker. I got all excited and jokingly commanded everyone to listen extra carefully because my cousin was up there, and a few moments later, when Presiden Hacking was at the pulpit, he made me smile and wave at the camera and said,  If nothing else, Sister Washburn will make a great missionary because she´s got good ól cowboy blood in her veins. 

 

Yee-haw!

 

Who knows when this cough will finally go away, but I just know, I just absolutely know, that God sustains his servants.  What a blessing to be so directly involved in building the kingdom and to keep that stone cut without hands rollin´along.

 

Miracles.

 

So many miracles for a lowly cow-girl missionary.

 

love, love, love you all!

 

Sis. Washburn